Howard M. Sachar, GWU scholar and ‘trailblazer’ of Jewish history, dies at 90

Howard M. Sachar, a George Washington University scholar who combined a vivid narrative sweep with compelling portraits of major political and military players in more than a dozen books on modern Jewish history, died April 18 at his home in Kensington, Md. He was 90.

The cause was chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, said his son, Daniel Sachar. 

Dr. Sachar, a second-generation historian whose most prominent works included the two-volume “A History of Israel” and “A History of the Jews in the Modern World,” was considered one of the leading scholars in his field. 

Harvard historian Derek Penslar called Dr. Sachar a “trailblazer” for his early books, including “The Course of Modern Jewish History,” published in 1958. 

“At the time, the field of Jewish history was very undeveloped in the English speaking world,” Penslar said in an interview. “He produced this modern expansive overview of the modern Jewish experience, and it was used in classes for decades.” ...